Two transcending masterpieces in one concert leave a reviewer bemoaning his meagre space.
A bit like the historian marvelling at all Mozart achieved in 1791, the year of his untimely death, and seeking attribution.
None is needed, as no excuse is required to heap praise on Stephen Benavente and his Priory Singers for cramming this all-Mozart event with music from that year to celebrate by candlelight the choir’s 10th anniversary.
In the Clarinet Concerto, leviathan soloist Colin Lawson played a copy of the kind of basset clarinet on which the work was first unveiled by Anton Stadler.
It’s a mellower and faintly Heath Robinson version of its bright, often pushy modern counterpart and demands especial care. It attracted that in abundance, Lawson’s interpretation being fluent and unforced.
The Welsh Baroque Orchestra’s presence guaranteed authentic sound - or as authentic as anyone can now make it. Scholarly musicians still argue the point.
As they do over the finished versions of the Requiem, left uncompleted at the composer’s death and with some strong Baroque overtones. Mr Benavente opted for the completion by Mozart’s pupil Sussmayr, a version to please most non-disputatious listeners.
The Priory’s streamlined forces made light work of the choruses, and soloists Stephanie Benavente, Flora York Skinner, Richard Allen and Stephen Hamnett were as good combined as they were in their divided parts.
The choir’s lean sound sometimes competed with the orchestra, but not in the Ave Verum Corpus, a divine meditation on the presence of Christ but in these circumstances eerily appropriate death music.
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